Trucial States | ||||||||||||||||||||||
Princely states of British India (until 1947) Protectorates of the United Kingdom |
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Capital | Not specified | |||||||||||||||||||||
Languages | Arabic, English | |||||||||||||||||||||
Government | Council of absolute monarchies. | |||||||||||||||||||||
History | ||||||||||||||||||||||
• | General Maritime Treaty | 8 January 1820 | ||||||||||||||||||||
• | Perpetual Maritime Truce | 1853 | ||||||||||||||||||||
• | Trucial States Council | 1952 | ||||||||||||||||||||
• | End of protectorate | 1 December 1971 | ||||||||||||||||||||
• | United Arab Emirates | 2 December 1971 | ||||||||||||||||||||
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Flag of the Trucial States Council
The Trucial States (Arabic: إمارات الساحل المتصالح Imārāt as-Sāḥil al-Mutaṣāliḥ; also known as Trucial Oman, Trucial States of the Coast of Oman, the Trucial Coast, and Trucial Sheikhdoms) were a group of sheikhdoms in the south-eastern Persian Gulf, previously known to the British as the 'Pirate Coast', which were signatories to treaties (hence 'trucial') with the British government. These treaties established an informal protectorate by Great Britain, and the sheikhdoms, or emirates, were a British protectorate from 1820 until 2 December 1971, when the seven principal trucial sheikhdoms became independent. Six (Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Sharjah, Ajman, Umm Al Qawain and Fujairah) were to form the United Arab Emirates on that day; the seventh – Ras Al Khaimah – joined the Federation on 10 February 1972.
The sheikhdoms included:
The sheikhdoms permanently allied themselves with the United Kingdom by the Perpetual Maritime Truce of 1853, until in 1892 they entered into "Exclusivity Agreements" with the British - following on from Bahrain in 1880 - which put them under British protection. This was an unclear status which fell short of a formal protectorate, but required Britain to defend them from external aggression in exchange for exclusive British rights in the states.
Two sheikhdoms at various times looked as if they might be granted trucial status, affirming their independence from neighbouring Sharjah, Al Hamriyah and Al Heera, but neither signed treaties with the British. Kalba, granted trucial status in 1936 because it was chosen as the site of a back-up landing strip for the Imperial Airways flights into Sharjah, was re-incorporated into Sharjah in 1951 on the death of its ruler.